Giant Fork

Description

Springfield has a 35-foot stainless steel fork hiding in plain sight, and this orange landmark hex tile is our tribute to it. If you know, you know. If you don’t, you’re about to become the person at the party who brings it up.

The tile renders the fork’s current home in Bridget’s dense henna-style linework, an amber brick facade patterned in swirling florals with a grid of deep blue mosaic windows, a strip of teal sky along the top, and the fork itself picked out in clean white detail against it all. The building’s texture and the fork’s smooth lines play off each other, industrial next to organic, which felt right for a piece of roadside art that’s spent decades quietly existing in the middle of an ad agency’s parking lot.

The fork started life in 1990, built for a restaurant on South Glenstone Avenue, and made the move to its current spot once that restaurant closed. It’s been standing there ever since, eleven tons of stainless steel that most people drive past without ever knowing it’s there. That’s the appeal. Springfield’s full of these tucked-away landmarks, and this tile is part of a growing collection built around finding them.

This one’s a natural pick for anyone who grew up here, moved here, or just collects weirdly specific local trivia. It also works well next to other pieces from the Landmark Collection if you’re building out a Springfield-specific gallery wall, or as a genuinely funny housewarming gift for a friend new to town.

Available from 1.5 inches up to 18 inches.